There have been calls for Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to put a stop to sheep inspections at this time of year due to the risk to heavily pregnant ewes.

Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture Martin Kenny told the Minister: “I have being contacted by angry farmers who have been selected for sheep inspections and are being forced to gather all their sheep both on lowlands and the mountains and pen them up for the Department to inspect them.

"Surely, the Minister and his Departmental officials know that we are heading into lambing season and sheep are heavily pregnant and vulnerable.

"It is recognised that stress to sheep is a major cause of sheep aborting lambs and also causes difficulties and complications during the lambing process."

Kenny also pointed out that farmers in mountainous areas are not being given sufficient time to gather their flock as they are "battling inclement weather conditions" and called on Minister Creed to use "common sense and stop these inspections until lambing season is over".

Links

Sheep management: tagging and being prepared for inspections

Kepak suspends lamb processing due to clean sheep policy